Russian athletes appear increasingly unlikely to take part in the European championships in Amsterdam in July and in the Rio Olympics in August after the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) decided unanimously at an extraordinary council meeting in Vienna last week that the Russian athletics federation had not met the conditions for its reinstatement – thus upholding the suspension decided in November 2015 after a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency over alleged doping issues. Sebastian Coe, the IAAF president, said that good progress had been made, but the IAAF found that the Russian federation had failed to radically address what the international federation described as a “deep-seated culture of tolerance (or worse) for doping,” or to create a strong and effective anti-doping infrastructure, among other issues. The International Olympic Committee said that it would respect the decision at the Rio Olympics. However, the IAAF council also decided that Russian athletes who can prove they are “not tainted by the Russian system” or who actively fought alleged doping in Russian athletics may be allowed to take part under a neutral flag. Vitaly Mutko, Russia's sports minister, made an appeal to the IAAF before its decision, insisting that Russia has been doing all it can to fight doping. Vladimir Putin reportedly described the IAAF decision as unfair.

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